Doctors agitate to have ban on advertising removed

Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter

MEDICAL practitioners have revived calls to allow them to advertise their areas of specialty to ensure locals have access to information about their services saying this will minimise medical tourism as patients sometimes take costly trips because they lack knowledge of locally available services.

According to Section 135 of the Health Professionals Act, it is strictly prohibited for health personnel to advertise professional services and this has led to some services remaining unknown to the general public in an era where there is fast paced technology in the medical field.

They suggest that the ban should in fact be extended to untrained personnel who litter the streets with adverts of services that they provide sometimes at the expense of the paying public. President of the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZiMA) Dr Kudzai Masinire said medical practitioners were lobbying for the amendment of clause in the Act saying they wanted practitioners to adequately share useful information about their practices for the public good.

“As ZiMA we strongly feel that the review of the regulations governing advertising is long overdue. As I write we are inundated by requests from colleagues in the fraternity who are requesting us to re-initiate, trigger, or lobby for a review of the instruments. Advertising is governed by Section 8 of SI 41 of 2004 section 135 of the Health Professionals Act. The regulations are archaic and too restrictive in the modern and digital world. They do not help fight infordemia but worsen it,” said Dr Masinire.

He said the profession was lagging behind in adapting to new trends that make the profession up to date. He gave examples of some of the prohibitions.

“Doctors are prohibited from writing huge plaques or billboards which can be read by someone 20 meters away but only those which one can read within a meter or two. Doctors are not allowed to state the kind of services they offer at their practices. This exacerbates medical tourism as people at times emigrate for services that are offered locally. Doctors cannot showcase their work at gala dinners, trade fairs, shows, or sports events. We do not want to boast about our expertise and competencies but to provide reliable verifiable useful information,” said Dr Masinire.

The ZiMA president lamented that there were unregistered non-conventional street practitioners that advertise their herbs, fake body scans, and scam people daily also fleecing people millions of their hard-earned cash but were not  regulated.

“The role of the advertising regulations was to maintain order and discipline within the fraternity which was necessary. But they ought to be reviewed so that they reflect the practical realities of the changing times. We do not want doctors to be touts or to compete in the media about who is better, the way bus or transport operators would do it,” he said.

A senior medical practitioner in Bulawayo also shared similar sentiments with Dr Masinire. “We have people who treat Sexually Transmitted Infections, and cancers, people who sell concoctions for treating sore teeth, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and prophets who are advertising what they treat. 

“These are people who are not regulated and are not licensed or even trained to do what they do but they are advertising daily in full view of the regulatory authorities who are not stopping them from advertising. If we are allowing them to do so, what about those with qualifications, who are trained and skilled to do their jobs? Are we not being unfair to them,” said a senior doctor who requested anonymity.

He however, said medical practitioners must advertise in a regulated manner.

“The adverts must not mislead people. The contents of the adverts themselves must be looked at by the regulating authority rather than to ban advertising like they have been doing. They should guard against attacking or demeaning each other,” he said.

The health practitioners also said there was a lot of new technology developing in the medical field that people need access to and that would only be possible if some form of information dissemination was allowed.

“This knowledge and information will benefit the people if they are exposed to it. Some people have crossed over to South Africa, Botswana, and even India for procedures that are available locally. It is sometimes caused by lack of adequate information,” he added.

He further said there is also a need to view the medical field as a business.

“Sometimes a company survives on the strength of its marketing strategies. Let us begin to look at the fraternity as an industry, a business, the same principles that apply with other industries must also apply in medicine but of course upholding the ethics of medicine,” he added.–@NyembeziMu